AMA #8: Balancing Caffeine, Decision Fatigue & Social Isolation

One very important thing to recognize is that on any day where you really spike your caffeine intake above baseline... When you double that intake, you will get a big boost of energy; and the next day, you're going to feel the crash from that; you're going to feel more lethargic.

For people that want to get more of a true cognitive-enhancing and performance-enhancing effect from caffeine, again, you're going to have to abstain from caffeine for about 4 days.

It does sort of make me cringe to think about children younger than the age of, say, 14 ingesting large amounts of caffeine... Despite the fact that there's very little evidence that it can stunt their growth, I don't personally like the idea of the young brain being bathed in an adenosine receptor antagonist, which is effectively what caffeine is.

This is why I always recommend that if you are going to consume caffeine in any form... that you try not to ingest caffeine within the 8—and ideally within the 10 or even 12—hours prior to bedtime.

The half-life of caffeine is such that even if you were able to, for instance, have a cup of coffee around 3 PM or 4 PM and then fall asleep around midnight, the architecture of the sleep that you get is going to be disrupted.

The current estimates are that 90%... of adults throughout the world consume a caffeinated beverage every single day.

Daily caffeine consumption is not going to lead to improvements in cognitive ability or improvements in physical ability above one's baseline unless you either abstain from caffeine for some period of time, typically 4 days to 2 weeks prior, or you are not somebody who typically ingests caffeine.

For most adults... daily caffeine consumption is not going to be a problem provided it does not induce anxiety... and provided that it does not disrupt your nighttime sleep.